R.M. Packer Co., the 23-year-old gas and oil concern headquartered
in Vineyard Haven, was cited by the federal Environmental Protection
Agency this month for a long list of violations to the Clean Air Act.

The violations go back for years and have resulted in the release of
literally tons of harmful pollutants into the air - both on the
Vineyard and in New Bedford, the EPA has found. The pollutants are
volatile organic compounds - known in governmental parlance as
VOCs.

The company is owned by Ralph Packer. Mr. Packer operates a
wholesale and retail gasoline, home heating oil and aviation fuel
business on the Vineyard. In New Bedford he operates a marine transport
facility for petroleum products.

After an investigation that went on for nearly two years, the EPA
concluded that the Packer company had dumped some 27 tons of VOCs into
the air on the Vineyard and in New Bedford, because the company had not
installed the proper equipment to capture gasoline vapors.

The equipment is required under state and federal law.

A formal notice of violation (NOV) was sent to the Packer company on
May 14.

The clean air violations occurred at the Packer bulk petroleum
terminal in Vineyard Haven, on Packer company gasoline distribution tank
trucks and at the Packer marine terminal in New Bedford.

The EPA also found that the Packer company had failed to conduct
annual pressure and vacuum testing on gasoline delivery trucks, as
required by law, and that the company had failed to maintain complete
records of petroleum loading activities at the New Bedford terminal.

The company has also been cited for a number of other violations,
including noncompliance with a required testing procedure for emissions.

The violations carry a possible punishment of large fines, and also
possible prosecution.

"If Packer has knowingly violated the legal requirements [of
state and federal law], Packer and its responsible corporate officers
may be subjected to criminal penalties," the notice declares. The
notice is signed by Sam Silverman, acting director of the Office of
Environmental Stewardship for the EPA.

The company has 30 days to respond to the EPA notice of violation.

The EPA inspections were performed in March of 1999. In addition to
an examination of gasoline transfer activities at the Packer terminals
in Vineyard Haven and New Bedford, the inspection included an
examination of an array of company records for business activities
involving both aviation fuel and gasoline for the years 1994 through
1997. Among other things, the examination revealed that the Packer
company terminals without question were moving enough fuel to qualify
them to comply with state and federal regulations under the Clean Air
Act.

The company owns a fleet of gasoline and oil trucks and delivers to
at least five gas stations on the Vineyard, according to the violation
notice. In March of 1999 the EPA observed three Packer fuel trucks that
were not equipped with a vapor balance system designed to capture
gasoline vapors when gasoline is transferred between trucks and storage
facilities.

The 10-page EPA notice details a series of official communications
between the agency and the Packer company that took place between
February of 2000 and mid-May of this year:

* In February of 2000 the EPA served the Packer company a
Reporting Requirement (RR), ordering the company to provide information
by the end of March 2000.

* Two months later the company had not responded , and the EPA
sent another letter.

* On June 19 the company responded to the EPA.

* A second reporting requirement was issued to the Packer
company in August of 2000.

* The company responded in September of 2000.

Volatile organic compounds interact in the presence of sunlight with
oxides of nitrogen, creating ground level ozone pollution, or smog.

"Environmentally, this is a significant situation - the
VOC emissions that have occurred are nothing to sneeze at, so to
speak," said Gregory Dain, a senior enforcement attorney at the
EPA regional office in Boston. "A variety of aspects of Mr.
Packer's business have failed to be in compliance with various
pollution regulations and we consider it to be significant," he
added.

Mr. Packer said this week that he had only just received the notice.
He expressed some surprise because he said he believed that Dukes County
was exempt from the first phase of the regulations.

The federal Clean Air Act took effect in 1993, and Massachusetts was
required to incorporate the regulations into its own EPA implementation
plan. In 1996 the state legislature approved a stay on the Clean Air Act
regulations for three counties, including Dukes County, but Mr. Dain
said the state plan was never properly amended to include the stay. He
said the state also commissioned its own agency, the Department of
Environmental Protection (DEP) to study the act and decide if the
regulations were economically feasible and environmentally sound. In
1997 the DEP study concluded that the Clean Air Act was, in fact,
economically and environmentally sound, but Mr. Dain said that the
legislature has still not rescinded the stay.

In any event, he said, the federal rules still apply.

"These particular regulations were approved into the state
implementation plan and as such are federally enforceable," he
said. "And the DEP did an analysis and concluded that the
regulations made sense and recommended that the legislature should
repeal the stay," he added.

Mr. Packer said his company has already corrected many of the
violations. "This has been going on for several years and we have
made many corrections - some of the trucks involved and some of
the barges involved are no longer in service," he said.

He also said that the Packer tank barge is equipped to capture
vapors, but he said no shore side marine facilities are equipped with
vapor balance equipment.

Mr. Packer said Clean Air Act regulations do not apply to marinas.

EPA spokesman Mark Merchant disagreed. "Mr. Packer may not
understand the environmental regulations, but we at EPA are more than
willing to work with him so he can come into compliance," Mr.
Merchant said.

"I don't think we can do it overnight - and
it's too bad that the federal government and the commonwealth
aren't working on the same wavelength. This one is very
complex," Mr. Packer said. He also said: "In three years the
Packer company has probably spent in excess of $1 million on
environmental concerns. We haven't fulfilled every avenue, but we
are all very environmentally inclined."

Mr. Dain said the notice of violation is not a formal legal
proceeding but is a first step in a process that typically leads to a
court complaint.

The EPA began publishing smog alerts for the New England states on
May 1 in a new public outreach program. On May 11 a smog alert was
issued for the southern New England states, including the Cape and
Islands.

"Poor air quality affects everyone, but some people are
particularly sensitive to ozone, including children and adults who are
active outdoors, and people with respiratory diseases, such as
asthma," declared a press release from the EPA.

"There is still work to be done in curbing air pollution,"
said Ira Leighton, the New England acting regional administrator for the
EPA.